Sammi Gainer is an actor and playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Belmont University and has received additional training from The Barrow Group Theatre, as she is currently based in New York. Thus far, she has been involved on off-Broadway, regional theater, and educational theatre. She continues the work of an artist ( finding her individual voice) through devised ensemble work, being an active audience member, scriptwriting, dance composition/classes, and by reading plays in the Lincoln Library on rainy days.
What has she been up to? Spill the tea, girl!
As a performer. she is excited to say that she just finished her first Off-Broadway contract with Drunk Shakespeare at at the Ruby Theater in midtown! This experience reminded her of her love for both heightened text and improv! She is also excited to announce her second show at an Off-Broadway theater: Earth To Venus, coming this September at Theaterlab. As she continues to explore different facets of opportunity in this industry, she is grateful to say she has signed with her first acting agency, Glitter Talent, and modeling agency, Stewart Print Talent, who both are opening doors and personalizing the rooms she enters!
As a playwright, she produced her first original work, co-written with Ndanu Mutisya, “Sorry! We’re Closed!” (more info on her media page) that premiered at the New York Theater Festival this past May! She continues to write about what she believes an audience deserves and craves to feel for during a time of political unrest. After all, storytelling is about points of view being empathized with, and it is the job of an artist to allow that to happen with grace and purpose. Stay posted for an upcoming staged-reading!
As a dancer, this past January she trained with Frantic Assembly in LA at their competitive “CREATE” program where she learned how to direct and choreograph using their technical approach to physical theater. She hopes to begin teaching classes herself in the fall!
Woe, that’s a lot. Slow down. But, what is she about?
Sammi has a determined passion for civil rights. She wants to use her training not only tell stories that will challenge the current sociopolitical structors in today’s society, but to also allow others to tell their stories. She believes that through representation, people will begin to not only empathize with experiences that are not their own, but that they will also act upon what they see onstage. The theatre can be a place for both play and change.
Sammi specializes in movement. With some of her favorite techniques stemming from those of Chekov, Anne Bogart, Frantic Assembly, Laban, and Jacques Lecoq, she enjoys meeting her characters “outside-in.” She also loves to take Twyla Tharp and Doris Humphrey’s artistic approach to choreography. Telling stories without the voice and just with the imagination and body is an exciting limitation that paves the way for an art form that anyone can understand. Sammi finds movement both unifying and inclusive.